1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photovoltaic system able to float on water and track sun's movement, and particularly to a photovoltaic system which can be located on the water surface, and has its floating mechanism to be under water by using the adjusting mechanism and the surrounding water source. The adjusting mechanism can be further used to adjust the solar power mechanism to a specific tilt angle according to the water level of the surrounding water and the sun-tracking angles that varies as the locations of the sun, so that the simplified configuration, accurate sun tracking and enhanced power generation efficiency can be achieved.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, alternative energy needs stimulates rapid growth in the development of renewable energy. The wind farm, hydroelectric power plant, thermal power station, and solar power plant need a certain area of land, which raises the cost and is against to the living environment and food productions as population in the world increases.
Solar energy is a clean and inexhaustible natural resource, and therefore solar power is the most promising renewable energy. However, if the solar power plant is expected to offer the same generating capacity and supply stability as the traditional power plant, then the required land area is probably the hundreds even thousands times of the traditional power plant.
Ocean accounts for about ¾ of the total area of the Earth. In order to efficiently use the land resources, the solar power should be moved to the ocean or lakes for the sake of making full use of the Earth's space, improving the utilization of land, expanding the human living space, and for other derived significant benefits, for example; lowering the water temperature, slowing down the greenhouse effect, reducing the evaporation of fresh water in the reservoirs and improving water quality in the reservoirs.
The advantages of the solar power plant build on water have drawn attention in recent years. Development and further application of the related technologies have been made. In terms of technology, it is not difficult to make the overall system float on the water. However, there is still a considerable space to improve to make good use of in situ environmental conditions and water resources while enhance the efficiency of the solar power plant and the water quality for creating a win-win situation.
An existing water solar power plant is mainly built directly on the buoys in a manner of being in parallel to the buoys. Since the solar panels cannot always face the sun, the power generation efficiency is poor in the morning and evening. Alternatively, the solar power plant is mounted above the buoys by the use of support frames in a manner that the solar panels face the East with a tilt angle of 30-50 degrees. This will encounter problems such as shadowing due to the connection between the solar panels, directly affecting the overall power generation efficiency. Some countries have developed light concentrating water solar systems which may have complex mechanical configurations and factors adversely influencing the power generation efficiency such as rotation caused by the wind and water surface fluctuations.
No commercially available floating-on-water solar power system is effective to use the benefits of the surrounding water environment, but simply uses the water space to host itself. The water solar power system often needs to use fixed piles for positioning, and to set up maintenance trails in order to facilitate system maintenance. This causes shortages such as complexity in construction and increase in weight. Furthermore, all the solar panels are set horizontally or at a fixed tilt angle, failing to fully and effectively use sunshine resources of the full day, nor to take advantage of the features and benefits while being on the water.
The inventors have made long-term efforts in solving such a problem, and successfully got an approach to achieve a photovoltaic system which can overcome the problem encountered in the prior art.